winodwsfandomcom-20200214-history
Recovery Environment
Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) is a set of tools based on Windows PE to help diagnose and recover from serious errors which may be preventing Windows from booting successfully. Windows RE installed along Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 and may be booted from hard disks, optical media (such as an operating system installation disc) and PXE (e.g. Windows Deployment Services). A copy of Windows RE is included in the installation media of the aforementioned operating systems. It is a successor to Recovery Console. Features * Automatic Repair: Automatically finds and fixes boot errors in the Windows Vista Startup Process caused by issues such as corruption of the following components: Boot Configuration Data, disk and file system metadata, Master Boot Record, or Windows Registry, and issues caused by missing or damaged boot and system files, incompatible drivers, or damaged hardware. Prior to Windows 8, this mode was known as "Startup Repair." The executable image for Automatic Repair is startrep.exe * System Restore: Same as the System Restore that is included in Windows, it allows a system's settings to be restored to those of a previous state. * System Image Recovery: Restores the entire system to a previous state by restoring a disk image created by Backup and Restore component of Windows. In Windows Vista, it was known as "Complete PC Restore". * Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool: Analyses the computer memory (RAM) for defects (not available on Windows 8). The program will not run inside WinRE, but instead reboot the system and execute memtest.exe prior to loading the operating system. The memtest.exe program cannot be run inside of Windows; it is not accessible within Win32 mode. * Windows Command Prompt: Gives command-line access to the file system, volumes and files. It can be used to run System File Checker (sfc /scannow) against an offline Windows installation and repair missing or corrupt files. Tools like Robocopy, Diskpart and DISM can be used to perform various system tasks like recovering or backing up files, managing partitions, and fix servicing-related issues respectively.13 In order to use the command prompt, you must sign in to an administrator account. In Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, "Refresh" or "Reset" options are also available, both of which re-install Windows from a copy of the operating system on the hard drive. The "Refresh" operation maintains files, settings, and Windows Store apps (but not other desktop applications), while "Reset" performs a factory reset of Windows, optionally formatting the hard drive and perform disk wiping. Unfortunately, the Reset function does not perform a full reinstall; it merely performs a factory reset from a WIM image inside a hidden recovery partition. With this method, you can create a custom WIM image to perform a Reset on. Volumes encrypted with Bitlocker can be mounted if a recovery key is available. The Windows Recovery Environment can also be installed to a hard drive partition by OEMs, and customized with additional tools such as a separate system recovery tool for restoring the computer back to its original state. As of Windows Vista SP1, users can create their own bootable CD containing the recovery environment. See also * Recovery Console * Components